The Sonics - Here Are the Sonics
List Price:
Our Price: $11.36
You Save: $5.62 (33%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $8.93 (click here)
Category: Music CD
See more new music releases
Buy this Music CD at online store in your country
Canadian Music Store
Canadian Music Store
Music CD Cover
Artist: The SonicsEdition: Music CD
Audio: English (Original Language)
CD Release Date: 1999-06-01
Music Label: Norton
Soundtracks:
- Witch
- Do You Love Me
- Roll Over Beethoven
- Boss Hoss
- Dirty Robber
- Have Love, Will Travel
- Psycho
- Money
- Walkin' the Dog
- Night Time Is the Right Time
- Strychnine
- Good Golly Miss Molly
- Keep a Knockin'
- Don't Believe in Christmas
- Santa Claus
- The Village Idiot
Free Music Notes for Here Are the Sonics
Free Music Review: Supa dupa fly
Hit: 5 Stars
This is great fun. I don't usually champion cult albums from obscure artists because they are mostly awful - you know it's true - but this is an excellent way to spend half an hour. It's a collection of loud and tight garage rock tunes from 1965. When the groove starts the drums become awesome monsters of bass. The drummer's name is Bob Bennett and, in a just world, he should never have to buy a drink for himself. The band recently reformed and played a few shows, and the original members are still alive. They live in obscurity in and around Tacoma, which is somewhere in America, and based on this album they can hold their heads up high wherever they go. Bob Bennett in particular can hold his head up high. He must have arms like a giant. The lead singer is a real screamer. He has a limited bag of tricks - "woaaah!" and "uh!" - but they are great tricks done well. His name is Gerry or Jerry Roslie, "the blackest white man ever" according to a blog called Agony Shorthand.
The rhythm section is tighter than a robot. The songs are basically all the same, which gives the album a real Ramonesy quality; they are riff-based twelve-bar rock'n' roll tracks from the Chuck Berry era, albeit that this album came out just as The Beatles were hoovering up the charts, but the production is louder and tighter than Chuck Berry, and much bassier. The band plays piano and saxophone, and the electric guitar isn't very prominent - typically the solos are done with a sax. The solos are very short, because the tracks are never more than 2:30 long. The album itself is not quite half an hour long.
"The Witch" and "Psycho" are pure nasty aggression. The Witch is a famous garage single that was on Nuggets. Psycho has a superb short cymbal break at 1:34. The intro is excellent and invites contemplation. There are some clattery drums that sound as if they were recorded in a living room with a single microphone, and then "whoah" (pause) "baby!", and the band comes in right on the very first syllable of "baby". I have just sampled it with my computer, there is no gap between the entrance of the band and the first audible utterance of the lead singer when he sings "baby". The band was tight.
"Do You Love Me" is fast and, along with "Boss Hoss", has the best equals loudest bass. Boss Hoss is one of those hot-rod songs that the Beach Boys briefly tried to do, but The Sonics would beat up the Beach Boys any day. Brian Wilson would have wet himself if he had ever met The Sonics. "Dirty Robber" is a typical twelve-bar blues, with lots of good screaming from the lead singer. He sings the title as if it was "diddy bother". The ending is very Beatles-esque, in the sense that it goes "dang-dang-DANG! (stop dead)".
The singer pushes himself on "Keep a 'knocking" (1:52), and the band is again rocking. The drummer sticks mostly to straight pounding, but he does some wicked fills at the end of every fourth bar. He goes shrurururoom-tiddly-braaaam, diddly-brap-brap, just like that. "Knocking" was the b-side of The Witch, surely the best pair of songs pressed onto the same piece of vinyl until The Beatles did Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields Forever.
"Have Love Will Travel" almost has the same swaggering, tough riff as Psycho, but it's still awesome. Going by the vocal performance, it should be called "Have LUUUUHV! Whoah babe I will trav-UL!". The vocals really push the edge of the recording technology and if the faders had been pushed one tiny iota higher the record would crackle. I cannot imagine how this sounded on a 1965 vinyl LP coming out of a 1965 record player.
This album should have been a big hit, except that its aggressive rock'n'roll must have sounded old-fashioned in 1965, and it was years before Iggy Pop and the like. I can't emphasise how excellent it is, doubly so if you are having a party. It will rock any dancefloor. It's fun, it's catchy, it's loud. If it could be combined with a Nintendo Wii and beer it would be the ultimate party entertainment product.
The band's version of "Money" is closer to the original than the Beatles' version, or for that matter The Flying Lizards'. I think the Beatles arrangement is superior, because the riff is stronger - the Sonics were good at doing riffs, and it's a shame they didn't riff it up. The guitarist has a showcase on this song. I love the production, on this song and throughout the album. It's technically wrong, distorted and echoey, but it's alive.
"Roll Over Beethoven" is a bit crap. "Don't Believe in Christmas", "Santa Claus", and "Village Idiot" are terrible, but "Village Idiot" is funny though. It's a comedy song, with a Simpsons-style vocal performance from a village idiot. It's quite philosophical, because it is a mirror of human society; a comedy song sung by a village idiot, under duress. That's what the world is like. Three minutes of meaningless gabble from the mind of a madman, followed by an eternity of nothing.
There is no Mellotron anywhere on the album.
Here Are the Sonics Poster
1999 digitally remastered reissue of the demented debut by this legendary group of garage rockers, originally released in 1965. Features a deluxe booklet with previously unseen photos, interviews and information.Alternative Rock Music CDs
Music Genres
Top music charts in Alternative Rock Music CDs
Bouncing Souls - Maniacal LaughterRelease date: 1996-01-26; Music CD
Best price: $30.00
Blondie - Parallel LinesRelease date: 1994-07-29; Music CD
Best price: $397.77
Doors - L.A. WomanRelease date: 1993-04-09; Music CD
Best price: $199.99
Amon Duul - Phallus DeiRelease date: 1997-04-08; Music CD
Price in other shops:
Tangerine Dream - MelroseRelease date: 1990-10-02; Music CD
Best price: $74.98
Tangerine Dream - Private Music of Tangerine DreamRelease date: 1992-11-10; Music CD
Best price: $8.00
Price in other shops:
![Ska Explosion [VHS] Image](/images/Ska-Explosion-VHS-6303381014-X.jpg){kind=small}
Ska Explosion [VHS]Cleopatra; Release date: 1995-02-28; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $14.99
Price in other shops:
![Little Earthquakes [VHS] Image](/images/Little-Earthquakes-VHS-6302488664-X.jpg){kind=small}
Little Earthquakes [VHS]Atlantic / Wea; Release date: 1992-11-10; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $7.00
Price in other shops:
Exileby Geoffrey Oryema
Music CD
Best price: $4.95
![Louder Than Live [VHS] Image](/images/Louder-Than-Live-VHS-6301627865-X.jpg){kind=small}
Soundgarden - Louder Than Live [VHS]A&M Video; Release date: 1991-07-01; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Price in other shops:
Top Rated Albums
Mc5 - Kick Out the JamsMC; Release date: 1991-11-26; Music CD
Best price: $5.96
Price in other shops:
Fabulous Wailers - Wailers at the CastleRelease date: 1999-06-01; Music CD
Best price: $11.98
Price in other shops:
Stooges - StoogesRelease date: 1990-10-25; Music CD
Best price: $4.70
Price in other shops:
The Fabulous Wailers - The Original Golden Crest MastersAce; Release date: 1999-12-28; Music CD
Best price: $12.50
Price in other shops:
Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era, 1965-1968NUGGETS 1965-68 ORIGINAL AR; Release date: 1998-09-15; Music CD
Best price: $40.87
Price in other shops:
The Monks - Black Monk TimeRelease date: 2009-04-14; Music CD
Best price: $16.65
Price in other shops:
13th Floor Elevators - Psychedelic Sounds Of The 13th Floor ElevatorsRelease date: 1993-11-12; Music CD
Best price: $11.21
Price in other shops:
Sonics - Introducing the SonicsRelease date: 2004-02-24; Music CD
Best price: $11.38
Price in other shops:
The Sonics - BoomRelease date: 1999-06-01; Music CD
Best price: $12.95
Price in other shops:
Sonics - Psycho-SonicRelease date: 1997-03-18; Music CD
Best price: $11.31
Price in other shops: